The Best Keyword Research Tools: Market Research Going Green Example

Welcome back to another edition of Three Money Methods Traffic Tuesdays!

This is Jonathan Kraft and today I want to talk about finding out what people are looking for so that you can target your content to the actual words that they’re looking for.

One of my favorite, favorite, favorite tools for doing this is Google Trends.

If you’re not familiar with Google Trends, you really, really have to go check it out. It’s basically tracking what people are looking for on the internet right now.

So for today for example, some of the most interesting things people are looking for… “Today’s Hot Trends in the United States” are Jennifer Tisdale – whoever that is; Watkins Glen Weather; Patrick Kane Arrested; David Morgan Whips; Ohio Unemployment; Hall of Fame Game 2009; DC United versus Real Madrid, which is soccer; and What Happened to Forrest Griffin?

So these are very popular topics for today — things that people are looking for.

That’s a common term; a popular term that people are looking for right now and I think that if I wanted to build a website around “going green” I might want to talk about the term “going green.”

Well I did a search, you can see up here for the term “going green.” I’m going to move down the page just a little bit here so you can actually see this. This is the Search Volume Index; it’s clearly a rising market and people are definitely becoming much more interested in going green over time.

Starting off in 2005 when Google Trends started, there really wasn’t much interest in going green; but it really peaks here … starts to peak and it gives you some news information about what might have caused that peak; it just shows news related to that.

Let’s say I wanted to build a website about going green or have a website about going green which we do; we have a website called GreenJoyment.com that talks to people about going green. If I want to know is it better to talk to people about “going green” or is it better to use the term “go green?” does this actually make a difference? Well, it actually kind of does! Which is maybe surprising, but if you looking “going green” versus “go green” – “go green” in this instance is getting more than double the traffic as opposed to “going green.”

If you’re looking to build a website in this arena, it’s probably better for you to try and link back to your site using the term “go green” as opposed to “going green.” Because people are actually looking much more for “go green” instead of “going green.”

Let’s use another example, “mobile phone;” we’ll search the trends here. “Mobile phone” actually appears to be sort of a declining market here a little bit. It just gives you an idea to see what people are looking for – which is great!

Let’s say “mobile phone” versus “cell phone.” If you wanted to market a “mobile phone” or a “cell phone,” which would be better for you to use as a term? Well, “cell phone” is better for you to use. This gives you a concrete way to actually see what is going to be the better term for you to use; a “mobile phone” or a “cell phone.”

Now let’s compare this to something in the same arena, “SMS” for example. “SMS” is like four times the amount of search volume!

Does that mean you’ll be able to market more? Maybe, maybe not. But if you have a website about calling cards, cell phones, mobile phones and SMS text messaging, you might want to talk about “SMS” instead of “cell phones” and “mobile phones” on a more regular basis.

Let’s add one more term in here, let’s try “text messaging” and click “Search Trends.” “Text messaging” is in green; “text messaging” doesn’t even really show up on the chart! It’s a very, very minimal market. So your better bet, if you want to capture a market, instead of “text messaging” would be to talk about “SMS.” Maybe you didn’t know that before.

Use terms from your market. Is it better to talk about “poodles” or “labradors?” If you’re in the dog market, which one is searched more? Well, it turns out that “poodles” are searched more, at least in 2005-2006, than “labradors.” But look, they actually get closer in 2008-2009; “labradors” are getting more popular, “poodles” getting less popular. Dogs overall are becoming a less popular overall search term. So you can get an idea here of different markets; it’s just a great way to actually look for what people are looking for.

Two other tools I’m going to show you today: one is the Google Adwords Free Search for what people are looking for. There are links to these tools right below the video here.

But you can see this is Google Adwords Keyword Tool, you can type in descriptive words or phrases and it will give you terms that are relevant to those terms that you’re looking for. So sticking with our labrador example, let’s type in “labrador” and use synonyms.

You can also filter your results; you can have them not show ideas for new keywords; you can have them include adult content, by default it’s excluded. So we’ll just go ahead and click “Get Keyword Ideas” and Google is going to go out and look through its Search Index to find out what are the most popular terms.

Well, turned out “labrador retriever” is not as popular as “labrador;” but “labrador retriever” is more popular than “labrador puppies.” You can tell by the search volume here.

This is the search volume for June and then there are approximated search volumes. So if you’re going to have a website about “labradors,” you want to use the term “labrador retriever” more often than “labrador puppies.” You want to use the term “labrador retriever” more often than “labrador dogs” because this is what people are looking for more often.

You can also use this to buy Adwords and ads.

But I’m really just talking about creating content using the terms that people are looking for. There’s a link to this right below the video here; if you’re on Three Money Methods, you can actually just link right to this tool.

But it’s just a great way to actually know what people are looking for if you want to talk about “labradors.” So you want to talk much more about “labrador retrievers” than “yellow labradors.”

You also want to talk about “yellow labradors” but you want to talk about “labrador retrievers” more often.

The other tool that I want to show you today is the Wordtracker Free Keyword Tool so we’ll go ahead and go to that.

Again, if you’re watching this on the Three Money Methods site there is a link to this right below the video.

This is a website called Wordtracker. Wordtracker is a great product that you can buy and have on a monthly basis and get all kinds of great stuff just actually about keywords and understanding what people are actually looking for.

However, if you aren’t ready to pay for it yet, they also have a free sample of how their service works.

We’ll stick with labradors; let’s go in here and go “labrador.” You can have it remove offensive; you can have it show adult only or you can just turn off the filter. I just always turn off the filter just because I’m trying to get an idea of what it is that people are looking for in the market. This confirms what Google had shown us just a minute ago, “labrador retriever” is really what people are looking for; “labrador puppies” less popular. But you can get an idea also here for some other keywords, things you might want to talk about: “black labrador,” chocolate labrador,” yellow labrador,” “labrador puppy.”

This gives you an idea to talk about these things more often. This is the order in which you want to talk about these items on your website if you want to achieve the maximum level of traffic.

So we learned from our other search that “going green” was not as popular as “go green.” So let’s type in “go green” here and we’ll click “Hit Me” and see what keywords we get here. “Go Green” is definitely, by far, the most popular here.

Then we have “ways to go green;” “why go green;” “go green in your home;” “go green and save money;” “how to go green.” Those are the top five things, six things that I’m going to be talking about, really five things.

I’m going to use “ways to go green” in a lot of posts; I’m going to use “why to go green” in a lot of content that I create; “go green in your home.” I want to use those keyword terms most often because that’s what people are looking for.

You can get an idea also, let’s type in “going green” and see what other kinds of things we get.

There are less searches for “going green;” that’s just confirming what we learned already. But then we’ve got examples of “how going green saves you money;” “companies going green;” “definition of going green;” “going green at home;” “tips for going green;” tips seem to be a common thing that people want; “what does going green mean;” and “going green industry seminars.”

Anyway, here’s the thing, you’re going to get a really good idea of what you should be talking about on your website from this kind of a search.

If you’re looking at this on the Three Money Methods website, we’ve linked to these tools right below the video.

If you’re not, you can do a Google search or if you want an easy way to access these tools, just come to Three Money Methods and join us at ThreeMoneyMethods.com – yes, you will need to put in your name and email address in order to join our community but we’ll give you all kinds of great tools, tips and tricks about how to actually run a business, a successful business online. You’ll have to put your name in there.

We’ll look forward to seeing you then in the next Three Money Methods Traffic Tuesdays. We’ve got some great stuff coming up next week !

Hope you’re doing well and please leave your comments below the video if you have any thoughts or any additional things that we should have included in this video.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, going green is the new black these days. The benefits to your health, your home, and the environment are numerous and expansive, so I won’t regale you with every reason as to why you should go green. But I will tell you two things that shouldn’t stop you: money and effort.